Vodafone has agreed a deal with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei to become the exclusive carrier for the latter’s Ascend G300 smartphone in the UK.
The deal is the first Huawei has struck with a UK operator for one of its branded smartphones and, if successful could lead to further Huawei mobiles being added to Vodafone’s UK portfolio.
Huawei UK executive vice president, Mark Mitchinson, said: “This is a landmark deal for Huawei. We are delighted to have Vodafone UK on board as a strategic partner.”
“Vodafone recognises the ambition of Huawei as we become a genuine partner of choice and a serious alternative for future growth and co-prosperity.”
Dee Kaul, head of terminals for Vodafone UK and Ireland, commented: “We’ve collaborated successfully with Huawei for several years introducing a popular range of Vodafone branded devices to our customers.
“Building on this heritage we’re very excited to include Huawei’s own branded mobiles to our line up with the Ascend G 300 leading the way exclusively for our customers.”
The Ascend G300 is scheduled to launch in the UK this spring and will be backed by a multi-million pound joint marketing campaign. It’s expected to be available for free on contracts starting from around £15 per month.
The budget-friendly smartphone runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and comes with a range of modest features including a 4″ touchscreen display, a 5MP camera, 1GHz dual-core processor and 2GB of internal memory.
